


Best Laid Plans

by zinke



Category: Sanctuary (TV)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-12-20
Updated: 2010-12-20
Packaged: 2017-10-13 21:33:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 584
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/141943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zinke/pseuds/zinke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>‘She didn’t tell you.’</p>
            </blockquote>





	Best Laid Plans

**Author's Note:**

> I don’t know why, but I seem to have a thing for conversations between Druitt and Tesla. Maybe it’s because they are both so awesome? Spoilers through the season three episode ‘For King and Country’.

John isn’t sure how long he lies there after Helen leaves, Adam Worth and memories of a century-old choice best left forgotten slipping through his mind like water, before he hears the infirmary door open and Nikola walks in.

“I know, I know,” he starts before John has a chance to berate him. “Somewhere in that hospital gown you’ve got a switchblade with my name on it. But before you go all ‘vengeful killer’ on me, know this: I only told Helen because she asked. Quite insistently, I might add.”

“I’m sure she did.”

“Helen can be very persuasive. Besides, I learned long ago that it’s best to stay out of Helen’s way where you’re concerned.”

“What I asked of you was for her protection.”

“Yes, yes.” Nikola waves a dismissive hand and rolls his eyes. “You’re protecting her, she’s trying to save you. Do you think we might be able to put this little song and dance of yours and Helen’s on hold for now? We’ve got more important things to worry about.”

“Adam Worth?” John turns to study a water stain on the ceiling above his head. “We owe him nothing.”

“We need him.”

“To find Hollow Earth? I think not.”

Nikola crosses his arms, looking suddenly and uncharacteristically uneasy. “She didn’t tell you.”

John pushes himself into a sitting position and fixes Tesla with a menacing stare. “Why don’t you enlighten me?”

Nikola shifts uncomfortably on his feet and says nothing. Under better circumstances, Nikola’s uncharacteristic uncertainty would have been a source of amusement; but John’s admittedly limited patience is at its limit and it’s taking everything he has not to succumb to the rage building inside of him and force the answers from the former vampire. “Nikola—”

“She’s dying.”

The words are spoken softly, with a compassion John didn’t believe Tesla capable of. It is this more than the somber visage or the recollection of Helen’s grim frown when he’d told her to take better care of herself that convinces John of their truth. As he struggles to come to terms with the news, the blessed haze of numbness he’d been living in for so long evaporates, leaving him shaken and clear-minded in a way he hasn’t been since leaving this place months before. “How?”

“Radiation sickness. Courtesy of our long and not-nearly-as-lost-as-we’d-initially-hoped friend Adam who, in a rather inconvenient twist of fate,” Nikola adds, his voice deepening with disdain, “alleges that a cure can be found in Gregory Magnus’s infamous lost city.”

“How does he—?”

“He claims to have been there. And is more than willing to show us the way – _if_ we take him with us.”

The reason for Tesla’s visit becomes suddenly, painfully clear. “Helen would never allow it.”

Nikola nods slowly. “Which is why I need _you_ to find some pants, go upstairs and convince her otherwise while I try to come up with a plan B.”

John is already on his feet before Tesla has finished speaking, all too aware of the way Tesla is smirking at him as he stands at the side of the bed in nothing more than a hospital smock that’s far too short for his lanky frame.

“And afterwards?” he hears himself ask, the question fueled in part by a resentment not wholly his own. “If I try to leave this place?”

Tesla stares at John pointedly for several moments. “You won’t,” he says cavalierly over his shoulder as he leaves the room, shutting the door firmly behind him.

 

*fin.*


End file.
